Six Things I’ve Learned About Building Your Home Values With Your Baby

If you were not too sure what your life values were, when you have a baby you begin to see clearly what you want your life at home to be like. Indeed, for a lot of households, everything changes when there is a child involved. People who were not keeping themselves fit and healthy radically change their habits to ensure that their baby can grow up with positive values. As a result, your home changes dramatically after a baby joins the family. But it’s nothing to fear; it’s a change for the better because as a parent you want the very best for your child. It is a natural feeling to transform your life- and home style to ensure that there is no risk to your baby. In fact, some could even say that having a child is what makes your house healthy! Consequently, you develop a new set of home values. The focus is now on creating a safe environment that embraces natural and organic materials – as these are ideal for the sensitive skin of infants –, and activities that boost the immune system and the cognitive abilities. If you should summarize your post-baby home in a few words, it would be the home of love and health. Here are some of the new values you’ll see appear in your parental lifestyle.

You might value safety over style. It’s fair to say that a house for adults is not the same than a house where toddlers and children live. The reason for the obvious differences in decor and style is that the average home is a minefield of dangers for babies and young children. As a principal caretaker, you need to make your home safe for the sake of your child, using this childproofing guide as a reference. Here’s a spoiler however before your start your childproofing mission: You will need to transform your grown-up decor. The first rule of your new home is that you need to accept that privacy is for now a thing of the past. It’s important to make sure that your bathroom door can’t close as small children can easily injure themselves or accidentally lock themselves in. Additionally, to protect children from burning themselves while playing with the faucets, you need to set your water heater to 120°F maximum. Anything that can be swallowed should be kept out of children reach, that includes mouthwash, pills or liquid toiletries. Your next stop is in the bedroom, where you need to secure all furniture to the wall to avoid tip-over accidents. Windows are the next station as they should have a window guard to prevent young children from opening and falling out. Ultimately this handy guide takes you through every room in the home. There’s a lot of work, but it’ll be worth it!

Your perception of chemical material changes. If you’ve never paid attention to the chemical compound of your favorite toiletry and fashion items in the past, when the skin of your baby is at risk, you tend to choose products that are proven to be baby-safe. Cloth diapers, for instance, are a popular choice for first-time parents who want to ensure that nappies are free of harmful chemicals. Additionally, choosing chemical-free materials also affects your footprint on the environment. Traditional superstore nappies, for example, need half a millennium to decompose. Clothes diapers are safe for the environment, and their production uses a lot less energy than disposable nappies.

You choose natural and gentle cleaning products. Similarly, you will begin to question your use of chemical cleaning products under your roof. Indeed, even though chemical products should be kept locked and out of reach of children, there is no guarantee that they won’t affect your baby. Where there are chemical ingredients, there are toxic particles that put your indoor air quality at risk. Additionally, if a child has sensitive skin, touching a surface that has been cleaned using chemicals could start an allergic reaction. Instead, you should have a look for non-toxic alternatives to your home cleaning products. Did you know that you could tackle the vast majority of cleaning tasks with ingredients as simple and ordinary as vinegar, baking soda, soap, lemon and water? Lemon juice is highly effective against household bacteria, while white vinegar removes mildew, odors and grease. You can even repurpose your bottle of olive oil to polish wood furniture!

You embrace a world of healthy food. If you were the kind of person who used to love the comfort of processed foods and takeaways, you would notice that your habits change with a baby. During the pregnancy, mothers-to-be start to develop healthy eating habits that they try to pass onto their children. To ensure your baby enjoys a healthy diet, you should focus on organic ingredients which are rich in vitamins and nutrients. However, it’s important to understand product labels if you want to make sure you’re buying healthy foods. You can start to prepare baby food around 6 months after birth when your baby can eat solids. You can find yummy recipes in this article. from sweet potato puree to a quick mash of fresh fruits, you can experiment with nutritious food.

You turn away from the screen. Pediatricians recommend that babies and toddlers don’t get any screen time. Between the age of 2 and 5, they should get less than one hour per day. This statement might surprise parents who let infants use touchscreen tablets on a daily basis. Experts are indeed worried about how TV and digital screens can affect the social and emotional development of young children. In an effort to limit screen time, young parents focus more on socialization games.

You spend more time outside. Last, but not least, you find yourself spending more time outdoors than you did before. Indeed, taking your baby for a stroll outside helps to boost their immune system. Of course, you need to be cautious and ensure that your child is adequately dressed for the weather. But getting in the fresh air encourage a healthy immune system and brain development.

When you become a parent, the priority is not to change your home, but to transform your habits to give your child the change of a safe and healthy life. In short, your lifestyle values change dramatically, from outdoors activities to safe homemade cleaning products. The best for your child is also the best for the environment!

About Josh Bowman

Josh Bowman is a professional fundraiser, podcast host, speaker, and blogger. He has worked and consulted in Vancouver, New York, Toronto and elsewhere and is currently the Senior Development Officer, Faculty of Engineering at the University of Waterloo. Josh is the founder and host of Faith Deficit, a podcast about faith in an increasingly secular world, and also writes for the Huffington Post. Josh has been published online at Forbes.com, 101 Fundraising, People and Chairs, and a variety of other blogs.